Okuzeka
Emergency Medicine & First Aid vocabulary · Trauma and Injuries

Golden hour

Meaning in emergency medicine & first aid, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In emergency medicine & first aid, golden hour means: The period, traditionally about one hour, after a serious injury during which fast treatment is believed to give the best chance of survival.

In Turkish: altın saat

How it is used

Widely used in trauma teaching and the media to explain why speed matters. Many experts point out that there is nothing magic about exactly sixty minutes, so the idea is now used more loosely. A similar phrase for time on scene is the 'platinum ten minutes'.

Example sentences

  1. The aim was to get him into theatre within the golden hour.

  2. The air ambulance helps patients in remote areas reach a trauma centre within the golden hour.

Common collocations

  • within the golden hour
  • the golden hour of trauma
  • platinum ten minutes
  • traumaPhysical injury to the body caused by an outside force, such as a road crash, a fall, an assault or an explosion, especially when it is serious.
  • mechanism of injuryHow an injury happened and what forces were involved, such as the height of a fall, the speed of a crash or the type of weapon.
  • response timeThe time between an emergency call and the arrival of the first ambulance or responder at the scene.
  • EMSShort for emergency medical services: the system of ambulances, staff and call centres that gives urgent medical care outside hospital.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Trauma and Injuries

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.